The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for intermittently manufacturing a raw rubber strip with a steady accurate cross sectional shape.
In recent years, it is highly appreciated by the tire manufacturers to make a rubber tire component for example tread rubber, sidewall rubber, bead clinch rubber and the like by spirally winding a raw rubber strip or tape around a building drum a number of times.
In such a manufacturing method, usually the raw rubber tape is formed by a rubber extruder. The extruded raw rubber tape is supplied to the building drum through a festoon type tape accumulator or the extruded raw rubber tape is once wound around a tape reel and supplied to the building drum from the reel. The reason for this is that the consumption of the tape is intermittent in order to remove the wound rubber component from the building drum whereas the production (extruding) of the tape is continuous to make the cross sectional shape and thickness of the tape constant and stable and to prevent breakage of the tape. In either case, therefore, the installation space of the apparatus for manufacturing a rubber tire component is inevitably increased due to the accumulator or reel.